OOF!

When was the last time you had one of those conversations where you asked, "How are you?" expecting the predictable, "Fine." and got instead, "Oof!" followed by a litany of grumbles?  Well, that was Brett's experience just a few hours ago. :)  Poor guy!  He never saw it coming!  Ask a simple question and get a whole lot more than you bargained for!

Here's another question for you.  Have you ever had a morning when you were rested, ready to take on the world, had enjoyed some refreshing time for yourself, made a commitment for today to be good ... and then had all those warm hopeful feelings come to a screeching halt once you actually had to interact with someone! :)

Well ... that gives you a little insight into my day so far!!  By 7:45 am my son had already "earned" an afternoon hanging out with me as a result of being a grump.  (We have a rule that if you have trouble being nice to your family, you get to practice at home ... and friends have to wait until you have remembered to love and respect those nearest to you.)  Ashley had decided to wear pin-striped pants with her flowered shirt ... and in her biggest 4-year old voice declared, "I like it!"  End of discussion.  Norah was busy flittering from here to here leaving a trail of lunch bags and shoes in her wake as she tried to get ready.  And finally, Lydia screamed.  A lot.  Oof.

We managed to get out the door on time and 75% of us had smiles on our faces ... and Lydia had taken a break from screaming.  We enjoyed our walk to school and back, I got a shower (yipee!) and our morning looked to be taking a turn for the better.  Unfortunately, Lydia had other ideas.  And, you guessed it, they involved screaming.  Oof.

I do feel for the little tyke.  It can't be easy being the baby and learning how life works.  She has a lot to say and quite a limited vocabulary.  Her most popular word/sound is "Mah" which at any given moment means any one of the following:  Mommy, Milk, I want it, Give it to me, Help, My turn, Yes, Mine, I'm tired, and I'm the boss.  I'm sure it can mean other things, too, but I think you get the idea. :)  You would think that being her mother would allow me the ability to translate her "Mah's", but unfortunately even knowing the context of her "Mah's" still makes it tricky to get it right ... hence the screaming.  On top of that we have the wonderful fact that she is testing every boundary we have, has a couple bad-habits we'd like to nip, is as stubborn as a mule and seems to be taking her own sweet time in jumping on the Kellum House Rules-bandwagon!  Oof.  It's a good thing she's so cute!

So you put all that together and you end up with one tired big-sissy (but a wise sissy as she spent much of her morning enjoying the quietness of her bedroom), a worn-out mommy ready to bang her head against the wall and Lydia still screaming-strong.  By the time we got to lunch (and Brett's phone call) my ears were shot as well as my nerves.  Hence the blah-grumble-grrrr-humph that my poor husband received.  He was his usual encouraging self (Thanks, Brett) and I hung-up with at least enough fuel to get to nap-time. :)

Lydia, always full of surprises, took this time to share with me a little bit of her sweetness ... just what I needed.  As we were trying to wrap up lunch without too much craziness she shared this little gift:

Thanks, Liddy!  You are sweet ... and as you find more and more words I know that we will grow out of the screaming and into the chatting.  I'm looking forward to it!

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I hope I didn't depress you too much with today's post.  Just making sure you all know that regardless of how "together" I appear in print ... sometimes life is just a bit of a roller-coaster.  And honesty is always the best policy.  :)


And just so you know, the day did improve:  I got a call from a long-distance friend (Thanks, Kim!); Brett came home; I enjoyed time with my sous-chef, Aaron; and Brett is making me a little ice-cream sundae right now.  :)